Controlling skies over dangerous territory

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Orville F. Desjarlais Jr.
  • 455th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
TARIN KOWT, Afghanistan --  Inside their mobile air traffic control tower, the air traffic controllers need only peer outside their windows or listen to their two-way radios to see and hear the war unfold before them.

It's like watching TV, except they're in it, and it's real life.

"When I see (medical evacuations) happen, and listen to the radio as the pilots come in, it sinks in that we're that close to the action," said Tech. Sgt. John Roberts, an air traffic controller deployed from Tinker Air Force Base, Okla.

At the request of the Army, called a request for forces, 11 Airmen have deployed to Forward Operating Base Martello to organize the airspace over a small, dirt airstrip here used mostly by C-130 Hercules, Army helicopters, Russian aircraft and the occasional C-17 Globemaster III.

They arrived in late June.

"When I stepped off the plane, I felt a wave of heat. I stepped in a fine powder of dust and thought I was on the moon. Right then, I didn't set my expectations very high," said Tech. Sgt. John Gunther, another air traffic controller from Tinker.

There isn't much to look at. In an open area is a Humvee with a control tower on top of it, a deserted plywood aircraft control tower, a camouflaged tent for shade, antennas and an air-conditioned tent used to fix equipment. Mountains surround the base. In the foothills below the mountains hide extremists.

During the group's first day here, after setting up its mobile air traffic control tower, a helicopter's engine died and the pilot somehow landed at the end of the runway and later limped in for repairs. Then that same afternoon, they witnessed a U.S. attack on
Taliban extremists in the foothills of the nearby mountains.

"We see a lot of action here in Tarin Kowt," Sergeant Roberts said. "There are a lot of helicopter medevacs."

The air traffic controllers, nicknamed trolls, can hear the urgency in the voices over the radio as the aircrews fly the wounded in from TICs -- troops in contact -- that occur
many times less than five miles from where the Airmen work.

"We hear aircrews over the radio that they need this and that," Sergeant Roberts said. "It's different. It's crazy. Sometimes I have to put all that stuff in the back of my mind so I can work."

There are always at least one or two trolls on duty. Of the 11 members of the team, four are trolls and the rest provide support, such as communications and maintenance. They work day and night in 12-hour shifts.

Step outside the control tower and take about 15 steps and a colored barrel marks the spot where the tips of a C-130's wings cross over. When a Herc is landing, don't go past that barrel.

When a C-17 landed here once, the wings extended way beyond the barrels, passing uncomfortably close to the tower.

However, normally not much happens on the airfield. The aircraft are few, but that doesn't mean the controllers can relax. When they aren't focused on the sky, they have to keep an eye on the runway.

With no barriers around the runway, local workers have a tendency to find their way on the dirt airstrip. Some military members jog, others just cross it for no apparent reason other than to get to the other side. A steamroller operator and a water truck driver intermittently service the dirt runway, too. In addition, dump trucks cross the runway working on a construction project on the other side.

It's a busy place sometimes. When an aircraft is circling to go on its final approach, the controllers occasionally have to dash out and actually shoo people off the runway like free-range chickens. Either that, or they walk down the runway with their arms stretched out like a plane, which tells the drivers there's an aircraft coming in.

Dutch and Australian military members live around the air traffic control team. Soon the Dutch will take control of Forward Operating Base Martello. When they do, the air traffic controllers' mission will be complete, and they will return home.